When going from Aperture 2 to 3 and managed library to an existing Aperture 3 referenced

Question

I am having to move several 2 TB Managed Aperture 2 Libraries to a new drive because the drives they are on are full and cannot be upgraded. I am copying them over to a new 4 TB drive and can either export the images out of the managed Aperture 2 Libraries or should I, once they are on the new drive, upgrade the "Managed" Libraries to Aperture 3 then export the images. I have been using Aperture 3 for about a year and have about 7 TB of images in an "unreferenced" Aperture 3 Library which is where ultimately I want to be able to access the old images.
Also what is the best way to export them out to maintain the integrity of the "Project/Folder/Album" structure I use.
And finally, is there a theoretical limit as to how large the Aperture 3 "Unreferenced" Library can be? My Unreferenced Aperture 3 Library is almost 200GB's. I have about another 6 TB's of images to add once upgraded.
Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

I have been using Aperture 3 for about a year and have about 7 TB of images in an "unreferenced" Aperture 3 Library which is where ultimately I want to be able to access the old images.
If I understand you correctly, you want to create a consolidated single aperture 3 library on your new 7TB drive.
And now you have a small aperture 3 library on that drive and want to add the images from several Aperture 2 libraries, that are now on a different drive, that is filling up, correct?
Also what is the best way to export them out to maintain the integrity of the "Project/Folder/Album" structure I use.
To keep the integrity of your old projectaa and albums, your edits and tags, without losing the lossless workflow, I suggest to import your old libraries as libraries and not to export the images from these libraries to reimport them.
I'd do the following for each of your Aperture 2 libraries:
Do you still have Aperture 2 running, along Aperture 3, or can you reinstall it? Then I'd run the Aperture First Aid Tools on each of your old libraries to rebuild them and to ensure that they are having no glitches. Do that in Aperture 2, if possible. To launch the First Aid hold down the key combination ⌥⌘ and double click the Aperture 2 library. Then select "Rebuild".
Copy the rebuild library to your new drive.
Double click your Aperture 3 library to launch Aperture 3 on it and use the command "File > Import > LIbrary" to import the Aperture 2 library into the Aperture 3 library. This will maintain all your projects, albums, edits, metatdata tags.
Repeat for all your Aperture 2 libraries.
Before you delete any copy of your old libraries, check carefully, if they imported well.  And check, if your backup of the old libraries is current, before you do the rebuild in Aperture 2.
Regards
Léonie
And finally, is there a theoretical limit as to how large the Aperture 3 "Unreferenced" Library can be? My Unreferenced Aperture 3 Library is almost 200GB's. I have about another 6 TB's of images to add once upgraded.
There is no limit to the size of an Aperture library, that I know of. For merging libraries by importng one into the other you will need plenty of free space.  See this: Aperture 3.4.3: Release notes
Scroll down to the paragraph "A note on upgrading your Aperture library" at the end of the document.
It might be better, to distribute your combined library over two drives. 6TB on a 7 TB drive might be problematic, because the OS may occasionally more free space to perform repairs and rebuilds.